Family Photography by Natarsha March: Introducing the Studio Space

The Studio

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If you have had a session at Family Photography by Natarsha March in the past, then this might look very familiar:

Well, things have changed for 2017.

A lot.

If I had a dollar for every time I said the phrase "When I get my studio..." I would have had one a looong time ago! I loved my old space as you love the taste of a sausage in bread, its familiar, it works, it does the basic job it needs to do but if you had the choice you could think of many things you could improve.

After 5 years of photographing babies in my home, the time came for a dedicated studio space. I'm not sure who was more excited about this, me or my daughter Sophie who has shared her bedroom with my props her whole life.

By day a studio, by night her bedroom.

The number of times her room was loaded up with boxes of props because we had no where to store them or because I had back-to-back bookings, the cupboard doors always blocked by my wooden backdrops and her lego always being put away so they didn't get broken during a session. Gee she put up with a lot, but always with a smile. Love her so much.

The other family member who is excited about my new space is our dog Baxter. He used to be locked in the garage during my sessions but now he gets free roam in the top half of the house with all the indoor luxuries.

So the day finally came, we found a new home with a suitable studio space.

On moving day, it looked like this:

Yikes.

Props everywhere! Yellow cupboards! Green curtains! Yellow pendant light!

Yeah. Its been a long couple of weeks.

Firstly, it all got put into the existing framework so that we could get some feeling for it

Plus that week I hosted my first ever session in the new space. Oh holy cuteness, I think it is safe to say that this new space is going to work out. Oh and I now have a new love affair with backlit photos!

So the next step was painting. You can't quite tell from the wide image above (or maybe you can) but the room was blue. And blue wont do. So white walls, white cupboards and a nice neutral wall to photograph larger family groups against. Of course test pots and test shots were in order to make sure we got the right colour for the wall.

With help from my ever obliging daughter Charlotte I settled on the top shade for its warmth and versatility.

She is so good about doing test photos for me - during another backlight test shoot I took a phone call and when I came back around 10 minutes later she was still sitting in her spot waiting to finish her "shoot"!

I have to take a moment to thank my amazing husband Travis for all his work to help bring this this dream to life. His support of the business and his incredible knowledge of DIY made the studio a reality. I would love to say that it was all my doing but the truth is that he was the one to prep and paint every inch of the room, ceiling, walls and trims. He hung the curtain rails and helped design the storage space for all the props. He takes so much pride in his work, which he absolutely should, because its perfect.